Why We Don’t Package Our Shea Butter In Plastic

Wise Owl Organics is a company that likes to keep the Shea butter we sell as natural as possible. For us, that means packaging our East African Shea in glass as opposed to plastic and shipping it in craft crates. I know many of you have wondered why we’ve chosen not to package our Shea butter in plastic and there are a few simple, but vital reasons for this.

Our reasons why we don’t sell our Shea butter in plastic

While plastic is actually much easier to ship and doesn’t pose the same breakage risk as the glass jars do, there is a big difference in the way the product reacts with plastic and glass.

Plastic ruins the Shea faster than glass
In our experience, the plastic doesn’t keep Shea as cool as glass jars do. Of course, if you’re going to put any kind of jar in the refrigerator, it will keep cool. Unfortunately, the Shea can’t be stored in the refrigerator at all times (for example during shipping) and we prefer to err on the side of caution with regards to packaging.

There are chemicals in the plastic that can combine with the Shea butter
Plastic is a wondrous chemical combination and an invention that has revolutionized consumerism, no doubt. However, some of those chemicals are extremely harmful to the human body. When plastic heats, even just a little, some of these chemicals are released and will attach themselves to the contents of the container.

Packaging Shea butter in plastic definitely risks this happening and although it’s not necessarily bad in small quantities, over an extended period of time and use (especially if each jar of Shea butter lasts the user a long time) the chemicals could definitely affect the user’s skin.

We’re 100% organic
We want to be sure that not only is our product authentically organic, but the packaging is too. Plastic poses a massive problem in the world currently and depending on the type of plastic and the environmental factors at play, plastic might not ever degrade if it hits a landfill. The fact is that while plastic is immensely convenient, it leaves an incredibly large carbon footprint. We’d like to avoid that.

Our glass jars are re-usable with no effect on the contents of the jar. However, plastic can only be used so many times before it becomes potentially harmful. Of course, plastic also damages over time, causing the user to be more likely to throw it away.

Not all types of plastics are recyclable and not everyone is aware of how plastic recycling works. We feel safer with packaging our product in glass jars as opposed to plastic.

Simply put, glass packaging offers a clean and safe to use Shea butter. We just cannot guarantee that putting our Shea butter in plastic will offer the same benefits. While we keep a close eye on each batch to ensure that it’s 100% perfect by the time it reaches your door, we have to be sure that it will also remain as such during shipping. For us, this means glass jars and we take great care to ensure that each jar arrives at its destination completely whole.